Gentle reader, as we write this column, the election looms, but has not yet occurred, so that virtually anything we might say in regard to that topic would, by the time of publication, be outdated. So, instead we will address a small collection of random thoughts and ideas that have occurred to us, or been brought to mind, over the past few days.
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Last weekend, the drinking water of 400,000 Toledo residents was fouled by animal waste. With unfettered growth of animal agriculture and ineffective discharge regulations, it will happen again in our own state.

The problem has become pervasive. Waste from chicken farms has rendered the ocean off the East Coast unfit for fishing. Waste from Midwest cattle ranches carried by Mississippi River has created a permanent “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico larger than that of the infamous 2010 BP oil spill.